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Tackling taboos: abuse of girls in Zimbabwean schools

Abuse in school is a difficult area to research associated as it is with sexual abuse, a taboo topic which most people would prefer to ignore. This is as true of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where abuse in schools is only just being acknowledged, as anywhere else. But what can be done to stamp it out?

New research from the Institute of Education at the University of Sussex investigates the nature and pattern of abuse of girls in three co-educational junior secondary schools and an all-girls secondary school in one region of Zimbabwe. Examining how the schools addressed the issue of abuse, strategies for confronting and reducing its incidence are recommended.

Research findings include:

Abuse (sexual and non-sexual) in schools is widespread: aggressive sexual behaviour, intimidation and physical assault by older boys; sexual advances by male teachers; and corporal punishment and verbal abuse by both female and male teachers (on boys as well as girls).
An unsettling and sometimes violent school environment is neither conducive to girls’ learning nor to their forming mature relations with boys (with implications for the spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents).
Male sexual aggression in schools is institutionalised and considered ‘normal’, and girls respond on the whole with resignation and passivity.
Schools are complicit in the abuse in that they fail to discipline the perpetrators (whether pupils or teachers), deny that abuse exists, and foster an authoritarian culture in which the behaviour of teachers cannot be questioned.
School-based abuse is a reflection of abuse found elsewhere – in the home and in the community.
‘Sugar daddies’ prey on girls in the vicinity of the school, luring them into sexual relations with gifts and money.

Strategic actions to address the abuse of girls include:

Individual initiatives by girls and by teachers with their pupils; school-based initiatives, usually with the head responsible for seeing them through; and initiatives by the Ministry.
Teachers, school heads and Ministry officials all need to encourage parents to become more involved in the school.
An integral holistic approach to stamping out abuse is necessary.

Source(s):
‘Preliminary Investigation of the Abuse of Girls in Zimbabwean Junior Secondary Schools’, Education Research Serial #39, Education Department, UK Department for International Development, Fiona Leach and Pamela Machakanja with Jennifer Mandoga, 2000. Full document.

Funded by: Education Department, UK Department for International Development, 1998-2000

id21 Research Highlight: 30 January 2001

Further Information:
Fiona Leach
Centre for International Education
Institute of Education
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1273 606755
Fax: +44 (0) 1273 678568
Contact the contributor: f.e.leach@sussex.ac.uk

Centre for International Education, UK

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